Hillary Clinton made her first trip to Oregon, speaking to a packed high school gym just outside of Portland. While they acknowledge that her rival Barack Obama is favored here, the Clinton campaign is playing hard — naming a state director and what the campaign calls a “very active” steering committee, ramping up field staff and opening a state headquarters in Portland next week and satellite offices in every congressional district.

They’re also tailoring their strategy around Oregon’s unique mail-in primary system; ballots will be mailed out on April 28th, and the majority of voters are expected to submit ballots through the post.

“I’m here to meet with you and talk with you and hopefully make my case to you,” she told the voters of Hillsboro, OR. “This is my first trip in a campaign of firsts, and I’m glad to be able to blaze a home in the land of the Trailblazers.”

But even in the Beaver State, she was focused on Michigan and Florida. She’s long argued that their delegates should count, but today she claimed their popular votes should count as well — a move that would put her much closer to Obama in that metric.

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An hour after Senator Clinton seemed to deny telling NM Gov Bill Richardson that Barack Obama couldn’t win the general election in November, a spokesman backtracked — telling reporters who’d been at the press conference that she misheard the question.

Asked at her media availability today whether or not she told Governor Bill Richardson that Obama can’t win in November — as reported by ABC News — Clinton said she wouldn’t talk about private conversations, then launched into an answer on why she feels she can win.

When the reporter followed up by asking “so that’s a no?” Clinton said “That’s a no.”

While reporters interpreted that response as an answer to the original, direct question on her alleged comments, her campaign now says she thought she’d been asked whether she would give an answer or not. Spokesman Mo Elleithee says Clinton told him that her “no” meant she was continuing to refuse comment on that private conversation with Richardson.

Watch the video here and decide for yourself what she meant.

Hillary Clinton denied reports that she tried to pursuade NM Governor Bill Richardson to endorse her by telling him that Barack Obama could not win the general election in November.

At a media availability in Burbank, CA, Sen Clinton said “I have consistently made the case that I can win, because I believe I can win. And sometimes people draw the conclusion I’m saying somebody else can’t win. I can win. I know I can win. That’s why I do this every day and that’s what my campaign is about. I’m in it to win it, and I intend to do just that.”

Asked point blank whether she’d made the alleged remark, she said “that’s a no.”

As her campaign announced that it had raised $20m in March — just half as much as Sen Obama raised in the same period — Sen Clinton also denied that her campaign is in financial crisis. “I’ll have enough money to compete,” she said. “Obviously Senator Obama has more than enough money to compete.”

Clinton also said the recent spate of bad economic news makes her feel like “Paulette Revere. ‘The recession is coming, the recession is coming.’ And at some point, maybe somebody will actually do something about it.”

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Bill Richardson became the second former ‘08 Democratic candidate for president to pick a pony for the Democratic nomination, when he endorsed Barack Obama today. The news hit on the AP wire a little at 3am, Eastern this morning, that Richardson, the former New Mexico governor, would join Senator Obama make his announcement on the campaign trail in Portland, Oregon. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), endorsed Senator Obama last month in Ohio.

Obama explained the timing of the endorsement, which comes after a week’s worth of bad news for his campaign. He told reporters, “Last week, Governor Richardson agreed to endorse me, but we couldn’t get scheduled logistically because he had to go take a vacation with his wife, very wisely. So it took us till today to actually make the public announcement.”

Richardson, who served in President Bill Cinton’s administration, said that up until a week ago, he had been torn by two “very strong, good candidates.” Ultimately he made his decision  because he considers Obama to be “something special that the country needs right now,” citing Obama’s humanity, intellect, and judgment.

His decision was reinforced upon hearing Obama’s speech Tuesday, Richardson said. “He did not seek to evade tough issues or to soothe us with comforting half-truths. Rather, he inspired us by reminding us of the awesome potential residing in our own responsibility,” he said of Obama’s speech.

But with long-standing ties to the Clintons, he described his conversation with Senator Clinton last night to inform her of his decision as uncomfortable. “Let me say I’ve had better conversations,” Richardson said with a laugh. As he told the some 12,000 people in Portland, “The 1990s were a decade of peace and prosperity because of the competent and enlightened leadership of the Clinton administration, but it is now time for a new generation of leadership to lead America forward.”

While Hillary Clinton has remained mum in response to the endorsement, Mark Penn, a Clinton senior advisor told reporters on a conference call, “Perhaps the time he could have been most effective is long since past.”

“You know, that’s unfortunate. I want to get away from that,” Richardson said, standing next to Senator Obama at a media avail, saying this comment implied he could only help rally the Hispanic vote in states like Texas. “I want to go where Senator Obama has, where he’s calling on all of us to come together, not to be stereotyped,” he said.
In a lighter moment during his speech introducing Senator Obama at the Portland rally, Richardson strayed from his prepared remarks to recount a story to demonstrate that Obama is a “really good guy.”

Lamenting that he was never called upon during the numerous Democratic debates, he recalled being surprised when asked a question by the moderator of an undisclosed debate. “Needless to say, I wasn’t listening and I turned to Senator Obama in horror about to say, ‘Would you repeat the question,’ and Senator Obama whispered, he said, ‘Katrina. Katrina.’ And so I then gave my answer on Katrina,” Richardson said with a grin. “He could have thrown me under the bus, he but he stood behind me.”

“Don’t tell anyone about that incident,” he joked.

New Mexico Gov. talks with FOX News’ Neil Cavuto on his departure from the Democratic presidential primary race.

Two new statements by Sen Clinton and her campaign have her rivals saying she’s copying their positions.

On Wednesday, Sen Clinton told a woman in Elkader, IA who asked about Iraq that, “I think we can bring nearly everybody home, you know, certainly within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily.” NM Gov Bill Richardson called that a “stunning flip-flop,” interpreting the remarks as a commitment to bringing all troops back.

“It is clear that she is responding directly to my latest ad and my statements that she repeatedly has called for leaving thousands of troops in Iraq indefinitely,” he said. “Rather than defending her position, apparently she simply changed it.” The Clinton campaign strenuously objects to that characterization, saying the statement was consistent with her position that she’d withdraw 1-2 of the 19-20 combat brigades in Iraq per month.

And on Thursday, Clinton released a statement on legislation she proposed to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, saying the bill “will provide a direct raise to about 20 million working Americans. It would put extra money in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Iowa families.” That prompted John Edwards to congratulate Clinton on accepting his months-old challenge to raise the minimum wage to that level, saying “just 14 days before the Iowa caucuses, Senator Clinton has answered my call.”

Clinton has yet to mention the new bill in three events on the campaign trail. You can read her campaign’s statement on the new legislation after the jump, and read Major Garrett’s take here.

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